Muddy Machines
Combating labour scarcity in the farming industry
Recent valuation: 5x Britbots’ initial investment
Muddy Machines builds robots to autonomously harvest select vegetables to reduce farmers’ reliance on unavailable labour.
Why we invested
The farming industry is plagued by labour shortages.
In 2021, the UK farming industry faced 500,000 unfilled vacancies. There was an additional 30% shortfall in the amount of seasonal labour required to adequately harvest crops.
This is a structural trend seen over much of the Western world, as hard, physical farm work loses its appeal. Shortages have been compounded in recent years by global restrictions in the movement of seasonal labour as a consequence of Covid with these felt particularly acutely in the UK because of further Brexit induced restrictions.
The result has not just been increases in input costs for farmers, but that crops are frequently left to rot in their fields unharvested because no labour can be found to harvest them.The adoption of autonomous machines – that is, machines which can carry out tasks intelligently, without the need to be directly controlled by humans - is a crucial part of combating all three of the global crises which Britbots’ investment thesis seek to combat:
No available labour: Unharvested cabbages left to rot
Against this backdrop, Muddy Machines are radically changing the farming landscape through lightweight, electric, autonomous harvesting robots to reduce farmers’ reliance on chronically uncertain labour supply as well as increasing crop yields by up to 20% through precision harvesting.
How they have been doing since we invested?
Since we invested in 2021, Muddy Machines have made fantastic progress building towards a first commercial deployment this year with a growing pipeline of interested customers. The team continues to build out the technical capabilities of its existing robot (such as pick speed), range of harvestable crops (initially asparagus, with other fine vegetables such as courgettes and tenderstem broccoli soon to be added) and geographical footprint (initially the UK, now North America).
The Company recently raised an investment round at a 5x valuation uplift to Britbots’ initial investment, has secured over £2.5m of non-dilutive grant funding over the last 12 months and was accepted as one of the top 1% of applicants onto the prestigious Thrive Agtech accelerator.
Automated harvesting: Muddy Machine’s first robot, the “MK Sprout”
Looking ahead
The structural tailwinds behind Muddy Machines value proposition (combating labour shortage and reducing food waste) continue to increase and have been intensified by a new emphasis on need for domestic food supply self-sufficiency a result of the Ukraine conflict.
We believe Muddy Machines is building a market leading technology and the team and will be able capitalise on the inevitable shift toward automation in the farming industry which will occur over the next decade.
Copyright 2022 - High Growth Robotics Limited, trading as "Britbots". Britbots' funds are managed by Sapphire Capital Partners LLP, a specialist
investment management firm authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority.
* Figures based on the most recent price-per-share of the companies in the British Robotics Seed Fund 2 as at 01/07/2022, inclusive of income tax benefits accrued.
Risk to Capital
Investing in start-ups and early-stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. It should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Any investments are targeted exclusively at investors who understand the risks of investing in early-stage businesses and can make their own investment decisions. Any pitches for investment are not offers to the public. CAPITAL IS AT RISK.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme Disclaimer
Investments made in investee companies via funds managed by
Sapphire Capital Partners LLP
may be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). For more details, please contact us or refer to their website: https://www.fscs.org.uk